IP News
June 30, 2009
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
Coverage for Spoliation Claims
June 30, 2009
The most controversial and far-reaching remedy for spoliation has been its recognition as an independent tort claim for either intentional or negligent destruction of evidence.
Disgorge This: The Restitution Defense Meets the Duty to Defend
June 30, 2009
The restitution defense to insurance coverage proceeds from a simple and logical premise. If I steal money from you and am forced to return it, there is no loss for my insurer to reimburse because I never had a right to the money in the first place. Life is rarely so simple, however, and insurers have asserted the restitution defense — with varying degrees of success — in a broad range of situations, some having little connection to the original premise.
Patent Opinions, Willfulness and Inducement
June 29, 2009
Recent decisions have begun to fill in the gaps left by <i>In re Seagate Technology, LLC.</i> They suggest that a competent opinion is still an effective defense to a willfulness charge, and that a jury may consider a defendant's failure to obtain an opinion when determining the defendant's intent for purposes of willfulness and inducement. Also, legitimate trial defenses may be sufficient to establish that a defendant's actions at the time of infringement were not "objectively reckless.
Rocket Matter: Case Management for the Small Firm
June 29, 2009
What attorneys are missing is a brand new class of case management programs which, while they seek to replace older programs, also seek to solve many of the concerns law firms face when dealing with digital client data: security, mobile access and backup. As one of the newcomers to this market, Rocket Matter has embraced the new Software as a Service ("SaaS") model of delivering software from the Internet Cloud.
Virgin Advantage from a New, Near-Shore Corporate Frontier
June 29, 2009
With bona fides now suitably established, is it possible to actively leverage the USVI's fiber and bandwidth assets to deliver greater competitive and stakeholder advantage to the enterprise? Yes it is; an economic development program chartered in law by the USVI government, sanctioned under U.S. Treasury regulations and managed by the University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park ("RTPark"), may be of particular interest to e-commerce and other knowledge-based businesses.
